Reunion
by Lydia2
Summary: Jack receives an invitation to a family reunion and invites his team along. No slash
1. Reunion

Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue.

Jack groaned as he saw the return address on the envelope and then opened it. "Jack? Is something wrong?" Daniel asked, concerned.

"Hmm? No…yes…sort of. It's this." He handed over the offensive piece of mail he had been staring at with as sort of fascinated horror and then scrubbed at his face in his hands.

Daniel read it over. There was a simple invitation card and a couple of handwritten pages. He quickly took in the information and almost chuckled. "A family reunion? What's so bad about that?"

Jack just cringed again. "You have no idea!" Then he flushed and looked anxiously at his orphan friend. "Sorry, Danny, I didn't mean—"

"It's okay, Jack. As you've said several times over, we're a family." He still felt residual pain from the death of his parents and rejection of his grandfather but he meant what he said and smiled earnestly as he met Jack's eyes.

Jack nodded apologetically and then grinned. "In that case, come with me and meet the rest of the family. Carter and T can come too, and Cassie if she likes."

"Sure, I'll come. I'd love to meet them. Uh, when was the last time you spoke with them or saw them? I mean, you never mention any of your family, ever. Jack?"

"We, uh, we kind of mostly fell out of touch after Charlie. Not that that stopped them from trying to get a hold of me, but I refused to answer. That was the year you were on Abydos. After awhile, though, well they mostly stopped trying. I still get letters from Mom about once a month, and from my sister at odd times. Grandpa e-mails me regularly and I've even answered him a few times. He understands, I think."

Daniel's eyes widened. "He must be ancient!" he teased.

Jack pretended to throttle him. "I wouldn't say that to his face—in any language. He isn't quite as linguistic as you, but he can cuss in any known language, and you can't use Goa'uld, as well you know. So will you come? I could use the immoral support."

Daniel snorted. "Of course I'll come. After all, the potential for blackmail material…"

"Argh! I'm doomed!" he exclaimed melodramatically.

"Again?" came the voice of Colonel Carter. "What this time, sir?" She stuck her head in the door.

Daniel and Jack both laughed. "How would you like to come with us to my family's reunion? I just got the invite in the mail and now that I'm 'the man' I'm sure I can arrange the time off for the four of us. If you and Teal'c want to come, that is."

"Definitely, sir! It should be fun. After all—"

"Ah! Don't say it. Blackmail material, right? I should have known. So T? You in?"

Teal'c stepped in after Sam. "Indeed, O'Neill." He didn't say anything else, but the gleam in his eye and faint smile said he was thinking on the same lines as the others.

All the same, Jack felt great relief that he would have backup.

"Er, Jack?" Daniel said hesitantly. "They don't know about your promotion, do they? This is addressed to Colonel Jonathan O'Neill."

"No, it's been at least six months since I last emailed Grandpa, maybe longer. As I said, I'm kinda bad about that. He might know himself, though. He's a…pretty fair hand with computers."

Sam caught the hesitation as he had known she would and intended her to. "He's a hacker, isn't he? Sir?"

"Carter, chill. He's retired military. The president is well aware of his skills, or should be, anyway. He's been known to do odd jobs to help the government at times. He's got pretty high clearance too. He may or may not know what my job really is, or was I should say, but he knows when to ask questions and can keep a secret with the best of them. After Iraq, he was able to help me quite a bit even though I couldn't tell him much of anything about any of my missions." He chuckled then, breaking the heavy mood. "Whereas you on the other hand do have clearance but haven't asked."

"Uh, what?" Daniel asked, confused. "You're the one who kept threatening to kill us."

"Didn't you read the memo? Your clearance has been upgraded at my request. We are among the very few of this level, on par with the President. Actually…never mind. So if you actually have a desire to feel sick to the stomach with the knowledge of the things your C.O. has done in his life, you're welcome to look it up. I kinda hope you don't, because you'll never want to look me in the face again, but it's your prerogative." His face clouded over again and then he shook his head again. "Well, it's next month. I'll call the President to see if he can get Hammond back here temporarily to stand in and then call Cassie to see if she wants to join us."

The day of their flight to Chicago dawned bright and clear. Hammond had arrived the previous day and had spent the evening visiting with SG-1 at one of Jack's barbeques. Cassie had agreed to come as well so she had spent the night and all six had spoken about what had happened since he left. Now the five who were going gathered at the airport in civvies. Jack was rather nervous, though he only showed it in the way that his fingers were tapping a little faster and harder than usual. The others were excited. They had convinced him to get out some pictures. He had one upped them by going to his computer and bringing up some digital photos that he had received via email.

Jack had revealed that he had three sisters and two brothers and a whole plethora of nephews and nieces, aunts and uncles and cousins. It was quite a collection, but he had responded in exasperation, "Well, we are Irish Catholic, for cryin' out loud!"

He got onto the plane and wished desperately for a sidearm, either to shoot himself or his relatives. From the looks his friends were giving him they were reading that thought loud and clear and were grinning in amusement despite the gimlet glare he cast in their directions. The other passengers couldn't help but notice either, considering how hard Cassie was giggling. Jack was obviously military, his bearing making that clear, despite lack of insignia. He didn't show the inclination to start barking at the others, though, who did not seem the least intimidated by him, so the adults relaxed and some of the kids began giggling. Before their parents could repress them, Jack started making silly face at them, making them laugh harder. By the time the plane was ready to take off, everyone was in a better mood despite the early hour.

There was a greeting committee awaiting their arrival in the Windy City. It had been about nine years, after all, since any of them had seen him. There was instant recognition in both parties as they met by the baggage conveyer. The O'Neill clan, so to speak, was physically very alike. Jack stood looking at them for a long moment before stepping forward to hug his sister, Kathy, who was a year younger than he. She was the one who had kept writing him and had always been his favorite when he was younger, though for awhile they had fought like cats and dogs.

Jack finally released her and stood back, introducing his friends to her. Then he looked at the others and tried to decide who was who. His sister saved him after letting him stew for a long moment. Then she introduced her other brothers and sisters and mother. Jack stared at his mother for a long time until she finally made the first move and hugged him with tears in her eyes. Jack was stiff for all of two seconds before returning the embrace. When they let go, he wasn't sure where to go from there, but was saved by the rest of the family stepping up to hug him. Then his friends collected the luggage. They weren't allowed to hold it for more than a minute before it was taken from their hands and they were led out to the waiting vehicles. There were a couple of minivans that they were led to and they set out, Jack and his friends riding with his mother and Kathy in one, and the others in the other.

Daniel spoke up for the first time. "Mrs. O'Neill, you don't mind our presence, do you? We can always make do at a hotel."

"You will not!" She exclaimed indignantly. "If Jack has seen fit to invite you along, then you are family and will be treated as such. Where do you know him from?"

Jack opened his mouth to try and intercept the answer but Daniel didn't give him the chance. "We work with him. Well, Sam, Murray and myself do. We were part of his team until this last year when he got promoted to General. Cassie we rescued on a mission and sort of adopted."

Jack flushed and tried to speak again but this time his sister joined in. "You got promoted and didn't tell us, Jack? Of all the—Well, congratulations, but next time you'd better invite us to the ceremony."

Jack finally got a word in edgewise. "I suppose, but I couldn't this time. It was on base, which is highly classified."

Sam decided to dig him deeper into his hole. "Well, you do have a direct line to the President, sir. I'm sure he would let you get them in without much trouble."

Jack just buried his face in his hands and groaned. "Why did I even invite you?"

Snickers and giggles filled the car as Teal'c answered. "I believe you said it was for immoral support, O'Neill."

"Jonathan! Such manners! You may be a General now, but I will not tolerate such disrespect, and for your friends!"

Daniel decided he had tortured his friend enough. "Don't worry about our feelings, Mrs. O'Neill. We've worked with him for eight years. We're used to his humor. It's when he stops cracking jokes that we worry. He really is the best C.O. we could have."

Jack flushed at the praise, but his mother conceded the point graciously. "Would you mind telling me more about that? After all, I'm only his mother, he doesn't tell me anything."

"Can you wait until I am out of range of Jack? You understand that we do a lot of classified work, but I'll tell you what I can where Jack can't elbow me."

She laughed and then pointed out the window at a large old house. "We're here. This is where Jack grew up." There was a big crowd in the yard, eating in chairs or on blankets, and children running wild. Jack's eyes grew melancholy at the sight, causing Daniel to nudge him with his shoulder. He raised his eyebrows at his friend and they carried on a silent conversation with their eyes which Kathy took note of with amusement. Jack had always been able to do the same with her and she was glad he had someone else now who understood him so well.

Then she glanced between them and thought of something. "You aren't military, are you, Daniel?" He just didn't seem the type and he called her brother by name.

"No, I'm a civilian consultant. I have a doctorate in archeology and linguistics." This time he caught sight of brother and sister's silent conversation and tried to interpret it. "Uh, what?"

Jack spoke up before his sister could do more damage. "Nothing, Daniel. Not a thing."

Kathy sent a silent 'later' in Daniel's direction and led the way in. "You'll get your old room, Jack, but you'll have to share. Sorry."

"No problem." He assured her. "Before I got stuck behind a desk, I shared a tent with Daniel for five straight years. Then he went on year's furlough and when he came back we had another year's worth of the same. How many beds are in there?"

"There are a couple bunked and we can set up a cot if you like. Sam and Cassie can share my old room. I live nearby, but Lucy and her family live in Michigan now so they are staying here too. Anne and her family are in Virginia now so they are staying with me. Grandpa is staying here. Tom and Nick both live here in town, but have cousins staying with them. Aunt Bridget is staying here…"

"I get the picture. Oiy! Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. How are you sane?"

"Oh, most of them just got here either yesterday or this morning. Give it two more days and then I probably will be stark raving!"

By that time they had reached the gathering, which was looking in their direction with curiosity and welcome. Then an old man stood up and came over to them. "Jack! You made it! These must be your friends that you told me about. Well, do just stand there, introduce us!"

Jack laughed. "Nice to see you too, Grandpa. This is Daniel Jackson, Sam Carter, Murray Teal'c and Cassie Fraiser. Guys, meet my grandfather, Charles O'Neill." He hugged the old man, who then shook hands with all of them.

"I'm sorry about your mother, young lady." Charles said. "From what Jack told me, she was a wonderful lady."

Cassie nodded and then looked inquiringly at Jack. "How does he know about mom, Uncle Jack?"

"I told him, of course, Cassie. I've been known to email him, sometimes."

Charles snorted. "Sometimes! Make that almost never. That was the last email he sent me. I hear you've been up to some interesting things, Jack."

Jack evaded his glance. "Oh, nothing too exciting. Really."

"Being the first general in this family isn't exciting?"

There was a gasp from behind them and Jack turned to see his brothers and sisters staring at him accusingly. "Jack! Why didn't you tell us?"

Jack groaned again. "Look, guys. It's not that important."

Tom replied. "Well, I may not be up to your standard of education but I did research after you joined the Air Force, and you don't get promoted at a top-secret organization pushing papers around. What did you do at your Deep Space Telemetry to get your stars? Research a black hole? Save the world?"

There were a series of snorts from Jack's friends. "Uh, as you said, it's top secret."

Tom eyed them suspiciously. "I'm going to find out something, bro, you know I will. You taught me well."

Sam looked at the brothers and then said sweetly, "You wouldn't mind telling me his 'standard of education' would you?"

Jack flinched. "Uh, I've got to, uh, use the bathroom and get settled in. Let me show you the way."

"Not so fast!" Everyone surrounded him and dragged him over to one of the empty blankets. "Now, you were saying?"

"You mean you don't know? Jack's a top level hacker, and has a double doctorate in astronomy and English. I'm not sure how many languages he has now, but he was at fifteen last time he admitted."

"Jaaack!"

"Sir!"

"I told you so!" This was Cassie, who crowed in triumph.

Jack just shook his head. "Really guys, I don't know why you are so worked up. I mean…"

"Jack. You're going to have to come up with something good to keep us from sharing these little tidbits with the base."

"Seriously guys, you can't tell. Remember, the G-goldarn suckers aren't supposed to know I'm smart. That way they underestimate me."

There were several disgruntled looks. "Do I have to make it an order? Yes, I do know my way around a computer and yes I do know a few languages. That's not what's gotten me where I am or kept me alive all those years in the field."

"Humph! You have a pretty good dumb act, sir. I hope it hasn't sunk past skin-deep after all these years of keeping it up."

Charles put in his two cents worth. "He hasn't. I've read all of his papers these past years and he's done well by himself. You've probably read them too, considering where you work. Oh, but you wouldn't know that he goes by Ian Nelson, I suppose.

"You're Ian Nelson. Dang it, sir! If you weren't my superior officer, I'd, I'd…"

"We'd be happy to beat him up for you. I take it you're into astronomy as well? You would have to be to work there, I guess."

"Doctor of Astrophysics and Lt. Colonel. Daniel's Doctor of Archeology and Linguistics. I'm sorry but I can't tell you what that has to do with Deep Space Telemetry. It's classified. I do think I might take you up on the offer, though."

Jack sighed. He could not believe this was happening. Why had he invited them along. What could he have been thinking? Well, there was one saving grace. "I think I neglected to tell you about my black belts, didn't I? I haven't let deskwork keep me from maintaining my physical fitness. However, if you do take me on and blow out my knee again, I will so hurt you."

"Boys, play nice," his mother said. "Jack, you mean your knee never healed right after all these years? He hurt it rock climbing when he was a teenager. He never did tell me the full story."

"And never will," Jack vowed under his breath. "I really do want to wash up and settle in before grabbing food and seeing how many family members I can avoid, I mean greet." He rose to his feet and pulled up the others before grabbing his bags off his brothers and heading onward to the house, closely followed by SG-1 and Cassie.

Kathy and her mother followed them with their eyes. "This should be fun. I've missed him so much, mom. I remember how he looked at the funeral and this is the polar opposite. I really like his friends, though. I've got a good feeling about them, my second sight I guess. Just looking at them together, I can see the ties that bind them. Cassie, well, she calls him uncle and they said they found her on a mission. Her aura is odd but so is Murray's. Actually, none of them is ordinary or seems quite human any more, but in a good way. I'll see what I can find out but I can't promise to tell you, Mom. I think their secrets are best kept hidden. But you know what Tom was saying about saving the world? I wouldn't be surprised if those four had done so and more than once. I'm going to go grab some food."

Mrs. Jennifer O'Neill nodded in agreement. Her son had truly grown up and found the best of friends. Not that she expected him to act mature, much to her relief, judging by his behavior so far, but the others obviously trusted him, even despite their aggravation with his secret keeping. She couldn't wait for act two.

Jack was not a happy camper. His friends were ferreting out his secrets right and left before he was ready for them to. He knew they had gone ahead and read some of his old Black Ops mission reports, but that was different, he just knew it was. It was about them deciding whether to trust him and, and…But they had followed him for years before he told them and had overheard many of his nightmares and seen him fight. They had come over individually after reading them and cried and told him they trusted him more than ever and were sorry he'd had such experiences. He didn't know why he was so upset about this, but he supposed it was because what they had read had dealt with the side of him he had already partially revealed, whereas his education was something he hadn't even touched on during his recent career. He had tossed out odd pieces of knowledge when they could do the most good, but they had never challenged his act of stupidity so he feared that this really would screw with their minds and break their friendships.

"Jack? Which bed would you prefer?" Daniel asked as his dropped his bags unceremoniously on the floor and looked around vaguely at the belongings he had left behind years before.

"Uh, I don't have a preference, Daniel. I could just take the cot, I suppose. Well, then Teal'c would probably have to take the lower bunk and would bump his head. Just pick one and I'll take the other." He went into the bathroom with his toothbrush and shut the door. Then he absently listened to the voices in the other room.

"Sam, I wasn't sure if they were exaggerating before, but I spoke to him in German and he answered in the same language. I don't know if he even noticed. I wonder if he knows the language of every one of those places mentioned in the reports. If so, he might know more than me, though I didn't count."

"I know the General has quite a bit of knowledge about astronomy. I wonder if there are any other subjects they didn't mention that he studied. I'll ask Kathy later. Where is he?"

"In the bathroom. He seems kind of dazed. I like his family but they are kind of, overwhelming."

Jack finally came out and deliberately asked in Polish. "Well, have you chosen a bed yet? Then let's go eat, I'm starving."

Daniel turned to him, "I'll take the top so that if you roll over, you won't fall very far." Then he switched to English. "I'm ready to go."

Sam listened in amusement and then headed out the door with the men, stopping by her room to snag Cassie. Daniel dodged into the kitchen momentarily to wash his hand when Jack mentioned it, in Hungarian. Then they went back out to the yard. This time Jack took the time to greet everyone they met and introduce them to his friends. Daniel noted with amusement that Jack properly pronounced everyone's name, even the odd ones. Considering he was practically legendary for mangling everybody's names, this was an interesting side of him. Then again, when he respected someone, he did get them right, such as Bratac and Selmac, or Ferretti and Kawalsky for that matter.

Finally they made it to the food and served themselves the usual picnic food as well as some traditional Irish dishes. Jack dropped down next to Kathy and began eating cheerfully. He knew she would try to grill him and the others, but she was trustworthy and knew better than to press. She made small talk about her children as he ate and he guessed her motives. He didn't question them, but rose afterward and went to join the children playing Frisbee. The kids welcomed him enthusiastically. Even though many of them had never even met him, their parents had all mentioned Uncle Jack and he behaved like a big kid, being the sort that immediately endeared youngsters to him.

The others looked after him indulgently. "Has he always been like that?" Sam asked curiously. "I know that every other child he has ever met has fallen in love with him, but was he like that even when he was younger?"

"Yeah. All children love him. He coached a junior hockey team when he was younger, and I wouldn't be surprised if he still does. He also was part of a big brother program. I certainly loved him. I followed him around the entire time I was growing up. He was unappreciative of the attention at first, naturally, but he got used to it pretty quickly actually, as compared to some of my friends' siblings. He taught me a lot more than my parents did on some subjects and got me out of a lot of trouble. When Charlie died, it was like a light went out in him, but now he is back to his old self. I bet he took all of you under his wing, didn't he?"

"When he was still the colonel and was active, we didn't at first appreciate how lenient he was with us. Then he had to do some undercover work and we had a different colonel for a week or so. It was wretched. He had had to act differently during that time and when he got back, he was so apologetic because to be believable, he had had to estrange himself from us with hard words. We were slow to make up with him, but when we did start going on missions again, we realized that we really did have a great leader. He's saved our lives so many times over, too, though he always acts overmodest and claims it was nothing. He takes failure way too seriously as well. He doesn't ever accept praise for his successes, either. Where did he get that attitude?"

"He's the oldest, and our parents always made sure he took his responsibility seriously. Our dad, well, he was, strict."

Their eyes widened in shock. "Abusive?"

She nodded unhappily. "Jack always deliberately tried to take the fall for the rest of us. Dad died when I was fifteen, Jack was sixteen. He did his best to make up for the problems we were having since mom didn't work. Dad had brought in all the money until then and his insurance wasn't the best. While Mom went off to look for a job, Jack went to a recruiting place. I don't know what he bargained with them, but he finished up high school that same year, somehow, and went off to college. Meanwhile we got monthly checks to pay our bills.

"Within a few years, he had his doctorates and went into officer training. He tried to keep in touch, but it was touch and go. When I started college, it was all paid for without my ever being required to join the military. He still refuses to talk about those years to me. Whenever he came back for visits, he was different. The younger ones had been kind of oblivious to what Jack went through for us and weren't always appreciative, but they did enjoy his visits, when he would play sports and help with homework. He's the reason we grew up as well as we did, but because of Dad, he blames himself for every problem we ever went through. I don't know what to do about that, or if anything can be done about it."

Daniel grimaced. "And I thought I had it bad going through a series of foster homes. I was just neglected and mocked for my theories. I'll see if I can get anything out of him later but he always seems to think I need to be protected. Now I guess I know why."

Sam nodded too. "So first he was abused and then he felt he failed when Charlie died. Can the man ever catch a break?"

"Sure, he met you guys, didn't he?" Kathy smiled. "As a kid, he didn't get to act much like a kid. But now he seems to act like a kid around you guys, he's more vulnerable with you than he ever was with us. It's something of a relief and I'm more grateful than you'll ever know. Um, I know you can't tell me much about your job, but all of you are different in another way too. I have the Irish second sight, and none of you is normal." She watched as they traded glances that weren't in the least bit skeptical.

"You're right, we can't really tell you much, but here's a hint. If there ever seems to be something odd going on in the news, there's a chance we are involved. Nothing like X-files or anything shady, but do our best to keep the world safe, and Jack, well, he's in the middle of it all, the best of us. But you never heard any of this."

"Of what? So Jack treats you like a little brother from the sound of it. Do you have any other brothers? You said you were in foster care."

"I'm an only child. My parents were both archeologists in Egypt, where I was born. They died when I was eight, when they went with me to New York to set up an exhibit and it fell on them. I didn't have a real family after that until nine years ago, shortly after I met Jack for the first time. I got married, she got kidnapped and I spent the next few years looking for her with Jack, Sam and Murray's help. She died, but during that time, those three had become my family. I still love her, but I don't regret my life."

Kathy nodded sympathetically. "I'm glad for you. What about you, Sam?"

"I have a brother who lives in California. My mom died when I was a teenager but my dad is still around, sort of. He travels a lot." Daniel coughed. "He's a retired general and I don't see him much. You might be interested to know that General O'Neill has a tendency to call him 'Dad.' Our other general before was like a father to me. This current one, though, well. Unfortunately there are rules against fraternization. I love him, even though we can never be together with the way things are now. I love my job and couldn't ask him to retire, again, either. I don't know why I'm telling you this, though."

Kathy laughed. "I'm not sure, but if you ever do work it out, you will definitely be a welcome addition to the family. Where do you fit in, Murray?"

"I have a son, who is recently married. O'Neill is as a brother to me."

"Succinct. Well, if Jack has adopted you, then the rest of us have too. Hehe, if your father ever manages to come by, he can join in as well. I noticed, Cassie, that you call him 'uncle.'"

Cassie smiled. "He's actually more like a father to me. He helped save me eight years ago, and has spent all the time since making sure I grew up as normally as possible. He's the one that funded me for college, and he's been teaching me a lot of that stuff that Sam and Daniel didn't know he knew. He's a great teacher."

The two she had named stared at her in shock. "Really?"

"Yeah, he swore me to secrecy. I managed to clep out of a lot of classes. The only reason I didn't graduate from high school early is that he wanted me to have as long as possible as a kid with my friends. I'm glad I did too. I'm not sure what to major in now. I could probably get quite a few doctorates between what all three of these guys taught me. And Uncle Jack and Uncle Teal'c have both trained me to defend myself. And my adopted mom was a medical doctor. If my life hasn't been idyllic, it's been the next thing to it."

Jack finally came back, trying to conceal a limp. "Hey gang, whatcha talking about?"

"Life, the universe and everything. Okay, life and everything and the fact that you happened to have knowledge about the universe that you weren't revealing that you knew."

"Oh? Nothing about my childhood, your childhood and what a great person I am? Geez, what a disappointment! For cryin' out loud, I am not perfect and I'm definitely no hero! You guys are the heroes, I'm just the one along for the ride."

Cassie put on her most endearing face. "You saved me. You're my hero."

"Sam saved you, I just got in the way."

"You saved me when I was dying in the sun," Sam pointed out.

"No, the old men told me what to do, and I was the reason you were there in the first place." He deliberately avoided saying 'old ones' which would have been more accurate given that there were females because that term refered to the elves. Although technically, maybe that was where the legend of the elves came from. Then that information surfaced in his mind from where the download had been integrated and he realized he was correct.

"You are the one everybody trusts, Jack. They all want to deal exclusively with you, not with the rest of us. I could go on, but I know you wouldn't listen. Hey, do you have the second sight too?" Daniel asked.

"No, just a nose for trouble, or maybe I'm a trouble magnet is all."

"Like Ally, O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired, remembering the youngster who had helped protect him from Maybourne.

"Uh, yeah."

"Ally? You've kept in touch with her, Jack?" Kathy said excitedly. "She was from here, before. Actually, she's a distant cousin. I don't know if she's coming or not, though."

Just then another car pulled into the driveway, disgorging the object of their conversation. Teal'c stood up when he saw her and she noticed, visible as his dark skin was among all the fair-skinned O'Neills. "Teal'c!" She came running up and gave him a hug and then gave out more to the rest. "Hey, Cousin Jack. You know, I got a check in the mail last month…"

Jack flushed and looked away. He had essentially ignored her when he had come to get Teal'c and continued in like manner after he knew of her presence. "Hey, Ally. I wonder what that could mean. Look, I'm sorry I never went to see you or really thanked you…"

"You don't call a full scholarship into the college of my choice thanks? Don't worry. Remember, I smelled Maybourne and Dad was a cop. If that creep had known we were related, he would have tried to screw with you through me, right?"

Daniel chuckled. "Everyone knows you so well, Jack. And regardless of how long you protest, we will still know that you are a hero, to everyone."

Jack just stared at them. "Whatever. I'm gonna go grab my old bow and arrow and teach the kids how to shoot it, if there are no protests. Want to go show your expertise, Cassie? And you, Ally?"

The two girls followed him to the backyard where he put them to work carrying his weapons while he set up the targets. "How did you know I could shoot, Cousin Jack?" Ally asked mischievously.

"Oh, well, er…"

"You wouldn't be the one who set up the lessons for me, and the Tae kwan do teacher, and the—"

"So I helped you out a bit. You saved Teal'c and you're blood. So naturally I wasn't going to just abandon you."

"You're too stubborn, Uncle Jack. Why is it that you always think you've failed? No, don't answer that. Maybe you aren't perfect, but neither is anyone else. You are a good man, though. I wish you could see that."

Jack didn't answer. His belief in his lack of self-worth was deeply ingrained. He didn't feel like he deserved any of the good things that had happened to him, but one of his missions in life was improving the life and self-esteem of those around him. Daniel had been a hard case, but Jack had taught him to believe in himself.

The two girls exchanged a look and then came to hug him. "Well, we love you, even if you don't love you."

The three went back to the front yard and began their demonstration. Jack patiently showed the children how to hold the bow and nock the arrows. Then he got out a sling and showed how it could be effectively used, though he made them all swear never to use it except under adult supervision and with permission. Pretty soon, he was tutoring the lot of them in the art of self-defense.

The rest of the adults watched in curiosity and appreciation. "He's good. I hope they never need to use it, but if they do, they'll be well protected."

Suppertime rolled around, and this time they all loaded into vehicles to head off to a local restaurant. By now, SG-1 had managed to converse with other relatives of Jack enough that they weren't so chary of riding apart from him. Cassie rode with Ally, Jack with his mother and grandfather, Sam and Daniel with Lucy, and Teal'c with Tom. It was an exciting meal, and a day that the owners of the restaurant would not soon forget.

It all started when Jack was tossing the last roll at Cassie. Unfortunately someone bumped into him at the wrong time, redirecting the trajectory so that it landed on Kathy's head. With a squeal that would have done a younger woman proud, she retaliated, and soon the air was full of rolls, though the adults prevented the children from using any other food. In the end, more were eaten than wasted, and those that fell to the floor, Jennifer had collected for feeding the birds. From there, they headed to a park for a few hours, to play bigger games and shoot off fireworks. By now, Jack was exhausted and elected to sit this out, offering to hold his youngest niece, who was a year old and sleepy.

This brought even sappier looks from his no longer estranged relatives. The truth about John O'Neill's treatment of his family had come out gradually over the years, though no one had dared mention the subject in Jack's hearing. However, his bravery had practically become legend, especially after his time in the Special Ops. When he had lost his son, the whole family had mourned, but Jack had not allowed them to comfort him. Now seeing him cuddling the infant, who snuggled close and trustingly, there were many smiles and a couple of cameras brought out as well.

Jack did his best to ignore the looks. He couldn't miss them since his senses were still tuned almost painfully even though he hadn't been in the action so much of late. As touching as it was to know that this child had absolute faith in him, it was also a painful reminder. Nevertheless, he didn't want to give up his grip on this small life in his hands. He sat on a blanket against a tree, holding her buried against his chest. Gradually the bands around his heart loosened, and he slipped off to a light doze, monitoring her every breath and heartbeat even in his sleep.

The next day was more painful. This time he wasn't permitted to evade the questions by taking off with the kids. The only thing that kept him from running away screaming was that Daniel had chosen to remain with him, that man being the only one he had spoken with about his son, and who had been with him for most of the time he had not been speaking to his biological family, including the time he was suicidal.

Daniel sat close to his friend on the sofa as Jack faced his mother. He figured that the biggest advantage was his ability to have side conversations in languages that no one else would know, since they were dialects used by transported humans. He wasn't positive, but he guessed that Jack would have picked them up even as he had.

"Jack, please, talk to me. I don't know why, well maybe I do, but am I so hard to talk to that you couldn't let me grieve the death of my grandson?"

Jack gulped. "It was my fault, Mom. Nothing could change that, why can't anybody see that. I screwed up so many times. I was afraid I would rub off on you or something."

Jennifer blinked. "Oh, Jack, none of this was your fault, none. Your dad made horrible mistakes, for starters. I was the one who was unable to protect you, you protected us, though you shouldn't have had to. You grew up far too fast. I was weak and let you take the fall when I should have stood up to your father and walked away from our marriage. I can't change the past though; I can only ask you to forgive me so that in the future we can have a better relationship." She stopped and got up to face Jack, who stared at her for several seconds with reddened eyes and then got up to hug her. Several minutes passed before they released each other and sat down.

Jack more or less collapsed next to Daniel, who put his arm around his friend's shoulder. Then he pulled out a handkerchief and stuffed it into Jack's and. "Use it. You look awful." He said, deliberately using the language of one of the allies that was a good memory.

Jack smirked and answered in the same language, confirming Daniel's suspicion by using a perfect accent. "Yeah, well, why do you think I didn't want to come? I knew Mom would love having the opportunity to make me cry. She's all about that sensitivity stuff. Well, actually, she was fairly good at hiding it when Dad was around since he hated tears, but she made up for it when he died. Somehow she was able to find her tears again. Me, well, how often have you seen me in actual tears? The symptoms on rare occasions, but the actual liquid…I cried sometimes though, when I was alone…after you died."

Daniel shook his head. "Well, you have two families now, and whatever you may think about letting your biological one see you weak, your other one has seen you in some of your worst times, as you've seen us. Trust somebody with your tears." He stopped for a moment and then thought of something. "I have noticed, well I couldn't help but notice after all, that you love touching. I mean, you're always tapping my shoulder and you've given out hugs and stuff like that…where did it come from?"

Jack had to think about that. "Uh, it was Sara, I guess. Touch to me had been pain but then I met her and she made a point of putting her arm around my waist or hugging or whatever, always very casually at random times until I got used to it and began to enjoy being touched. When Charlie died, touch was pain again, a reminder of what I no longer had. Then you came along, and you do look sort of like him, or did anyway. So I avoided caring until you saved my life in a splendid manner. You didn't look like you welcomed touch either until the next year when I saw you in your big group hug. I was so jealous, I admit but then you withdrew when you got back so I made up my mind to get you to open back up so well, one thing led to another and here we both are." He squeezed the back of Daniel's neck affectionately and Daniel nodded back tenderly.

Jennifer watched the exchange in mixed envy and joy. She could not understand the language but the tone let her read the gist of the conversation. She wished she could get through to her son so well but was glad that there was someone in his life who could get him to open up. She smiled at the two as they turned their attention back to her. "So…"

That was all that she managed to get out before a flash of light engulfed the two men and they vanished. "Uh…" She almost panicked, but then thought back over some of the things she knew about her son's career. Even though he had been unable to tell her much, she could read between the lines as well as anyone and this had something to do with the top secret place he worked at. Taking a deep breath she rose to her feet and went out side to find the other three, who should know what had happened.

She found them in the den, playing a game of monopoly. "Can I talk with you for a moment, Sam, Murray, Cassie?" She was unsure about the last one but took a guess based on the hereditary intuition in her family.

Sam looked up and read in a glance that something had happened that definitely should not have been witnessed. "Uh-oh. Yeeah, um, let me make a very quick phone call and we'll be at your disposal." She grabbed her cell phone and darted into the bathroom. This was not a number she normally had to call, but as 2IC of the SGC, she had the president's ear in an emergency. "Mr. President. Colonel Carter. We have a bit of a problem. I don't know the details but judging by the look on General O'Neill's mother's face, I'd wager a bet that he has vanished, literally." She listened to the bit of curse and deep breaths before she was authorized to give out some small amount of information to those who most needed to hear it. "Thank you, sir. Yes, sir, I'm sure he is cursing them out as well. Have a nice day, sir. I'll call you back when he returns. Goodbye."

She slowly opened the door and walked out to face the music. "Jennifer, I am allowed to tell you something of what your son has been doing these past eight years. I think perhaps Kathy should hear as well, but no one else." She gestured for the older woman to lead them to a place of privacy and nodded for Cassie to collect Jack's sister.

Jennifer led the group to a small study. "This is the most private room in the house. Jack secured it himself years ago, and I believe that his first night here he might have upgraded his security measures. I believe that's something else he 'forgot' to mention. He has always been handy with gadgets of any kind. So, anyway, make yourselves comfortable and tell me what the heck is going on."

The three exchanged meaningful looks and then Sam took the role of speaker again. "Could you first tell me exactly what happened? Not what you said but, well, what was happening before you rushed in to get us."

Jennifer took a deep breath. "We had been conversing about—Charlie and then Jack and Daniel got into some conversation in some other language I'd never heard before and then there was a flash of white light and both were gone."

Sam mouthed, "Crap!" Then she said, "This seriously can't leave the room—ever. I got authorization from the President of the United States himself to tell you the basics, though. Jack and Daniel, from you description of what happened, got beamed up by the Asgard, probably Thor, who is pretty much what you would think of as a Roswell alien. Aliens seriously do exist and we have been in contact with them on a regular basis for eight years, though we first contacted some nine years ago, that being Jack and Daniel and a few others. We don't use spaceships, mostly anyway, but we have allies and enemies. Thor of the Asgard is one of the allies, fortunately." She stopped, trying to decide what else to say and then there was a flash of light in the room and the two travelers reappeared.

Jack had been seriously annoyed. Thor should definitely know better than to beam him out of an unsecured location. "Thor. What the heck is going on?!" Jack yelled to the empty air. There was another flash and Thor appeared.

"Greetings, O'Neill, Daniel Jackson."

Jack practically growled in his frustration. "Thor!" He snarled. "I was at my family's house. With my mother. Who has no idea you exist. Or should I say, had no idea. Now I imagine she is pulling her hair out in frustration. Why the heck did you have to drag me up here? I'm a General now, for cryin' out loud! I don't go off world!"

Thor blinked slowly. "Something important has come to our attention that needed to be addressed. You remember when I pulled you out of Antarctica; your brain was connected to the ship's computer. I had believed that link to be severed. However, when I was running this ship's diagnostic, I came to the discovery that you are still in fact linked to the computer. I immediately tried to discover how this was possible and how it could be ended when I ran across your realization yesterday that those you know of as Ancients are the same as those whom you call Sidhe. I did afterward discover where the connection remained and ended it, that being the reason you went to sleep so easily. However, I wish to pursue this information about the Ancients for the sake of your people and mine."

Jack sighed deeply. "Mind if I give my theory first? I've been thinking about this ever since. Now Danny here encountered the Ancients while he was ascended. I met a frozen Ancient in Antarctica. Written history is amazingly unhelpful when it comes to the origin of those we commonly call elves, none of whom anyone has met in a very long time. However, judging by what we have seen and read about the Ancients and Sidhe, here is my guess: When the Ancients left in their flying city, some of them remained behind wanting to get away from technology. They settled underground for a time to avoid dying in whatever disaster caused the others to leave. They enjoyed the simple life, and when humans evolved or however they came into being, some of them interbred. Others tended to avoid humans since they are fairly uncouth beings. Maybe they died out, maybe some managed to ascend or maybe they are still around, either in hiding or just hiding in plain sight among humankind. Whichever it is, my family has more of their blood than average, resulting in my ability to access their technology." He stopped and took a deep breath. "How does that sound?"

Thor gave another long, slow blink. "That is an accurate assessment, O'Neill." He sounded vaguely surprised. "You do not seem to be overly affected by this information.

Jack actually chuckled at that. "Why should I be? My family has never exactly been ordinary. I don't want you to be messing with them, though, got that. They are off limits. Of course if the NID gets wind of them, they may end up in trouble. Just promise no experiments and if you ever want to communicate with any of them, you ask me first and I break it to them. Can you send us back now?"

"Of course, O'Neill, I will put you with your friends." And they arrived in the private study.

Jack eyed his mother and sister. Both were looking somewhat wide-eyed. His friends, on the other hand just looked relieved. "Miss us?" He asked impudently.

"Uh, General? What did Thor want?" Sam asked cautiously, fearing the worst.

Daniel answered before Jack could open his mouth. "He just wanted to enlighten Jack about some information that our dear genius here ended up giving him, himself." He winced at his own syntax but left his friend to explain the rest.

"He was just interested in the fact that we have elves in our family." Jack said casually.

Sam's jaw dropped at that information but Jennifer and Kathy just nodded weakly. "Of course. Uh, what does that have to do with Roswell aliens?" Kathy asked.

Jack snorted. "The Asgard were allies of the Sidhe whom they now call the Ancients. He evidently hadn't made the connection until I gave it thought the other day. I mean, it's kind of family legend that some long lost ancestor was an elf but I just didn't give it thought until I was paraphrasing some information about the subject that you shouldn't have had any knowledge on and it came to mind." His own grammar wasn't much better but he carried on. "That's why I was able to activate all those devices. My blood isn't pure but the downloads stimulated it so that my latent abilities could be utilized. I already had all those moments of intuition, as I've said, and Kathy has her second sight, but I got stronger. It's also why we are such a long-lived family." He raised his eyebrows for some response.

"Yeah…okay. So your alien pals are friends of our elf relatives so all is fine and dandy. Niiice. I don't understand half of what you are talking about, but are there any more surprises you want to spring on me now or are you saving them all for later so my heart attacks can be spaced?"

Jack shrugged. "I'm sure I'll come up with something. You're taking this fairly well."

Jennifer shrugged herself. "Well after watching you disappear into thin air, your friends call the president and then tell me about aliens, what's to handle?"

With a laugh, Jack gave in. "Well, I'm glad you're alright. I'm sure you only got the basics since you didn't exactly get a lot of time so I'll make my own little phone call and then get both of you out to the base. You can meet some of my friends, have interesting conversations, visit other worlds, whatever meets your fancy. As I'm sure has already been mentioned, this conversation is strictly off limits…"

He received nods but remained silent, open to whatever questions any of them could come up with. It wasn't the one he expected.

"So, what kind of anti-surveillance devices have you come up with and fitted every place you feel personal about with?" Sam's speaking was fairly awkward as well, and she thought with a smirk that it might be contagious.

Jack looked around innocently, hoping to find some escape, but Teal'c was leaning casually against the door. "Ah, well, um, that is to say…Mom! Why'd you have to tell them?"

She chuckled at his affront. "Well, you did want this conversation to be private didn't you? I knew that they would know this room was safe if I told them that you protected it. They do think highly of you after all."

Kathy added in, "They'd have guessed soon anyway after the way you 'overheard' our conversation the other day. Geniuses, you've got here, big brother."

"Bite me!" He exclaimed.

She snapped her teeth at him in response, like they were still children. Even during his rough childhood, he'd managed to be playful with her at least. She muttered curses at him in several languages, making Daniel and Jack both laugh. Jennifer didn't know the words but she shot a glare at her daughter anyway, despite how old she was.

"Kathy! Such language! Not in front of the children!" Jack wasn't able to keep a stern face as he said it, though. Daniel wasn't actually a child, after all, despite how he tended to treat him, and he had taught Cassie how to curse as a reward for doing well in her studies under him. And she wasn't a child anymore either.

Finally he gave in. "Okay, so on top of all those other accomplishments you seem so shocked at, I invent. Er, I er, I started making them when I was little so I could make sure Dad wasn't picking on the others and so I could intercept him. They were really primitive, of course. 'In my day…'" he drawled mockingly. "Anyway, I got better with time, patented a simple one but sold the patent to the Air Force so they would take care of the family while I was in college. I kept working on making better ones for private use, and update the ones here whenever I came by. I've got them installed in my house, all you guys' places, and the office."

Everyone looked surprised at that little confession, their mouths opening silently in shock.

"Uh, guys? Something wrong? Oh for crying out loud. Stop it. I'm certainly not perfect or anything close. Oiy!"

Teal'c was the first to speak. "I have never noticed anything in my room, O'Neill."

"'Course not. That was the whole point. Sheesh, isn't there any other subject you could get fixated on?"

Silence answered him for a long moment. Then Daniel spoke up. "Actually, I was wondering something. Charles is your father, isn't he, Jennifer? So how come everyone's name is O'Neill?"

Jennifer nodded slowly. "When my husband died, I took back my maiden name, and all my children with me. It made me more comfortable to disassociate myself from him. The younger ones didn't understand at first, but Jack and Kathy were very quick to agree to the change for obvious reasons."

There were sober nods in response and the room felt stuffy despite the air conditioning. "Let's go grab some food, shall we, kids?" Jack said with forced joviality. "All that beam-me-up-Scotty business makes me hungry.

Everyone rose to their feet eagerly and left the room, Jack taking the lead. Mindful of the seemingly constant surveillance he had on them, Sam got out a scrap of paper and pen and scribbled down her email address on it, holding it out to Kathy, who reciprocated.

The rest of the week passed peacefully as everyone caught up on the lives of everyone else. Jack seemed a lot more comfortable with life in general, and his family had adjusted to his relaxed demeanor while his friends grew accustomed to the fact that he actually was a genius and a hero in denial.

There were quite a few tears in evidence as they piled back into vehicles for the trip back to the airport. SG-1 and Cassie had been effectively adopted by the rest, and phone numbers and email addresses were amicably exchanged with promises to keep in touch. Jack assured his mother and sister that he would see about getting them to the SGC and they dropped dates that they would be available.

The flight back was lively as they couldn't stop talking about the people they had left behind. They did respect Jack's desire not to have his accomplishments broadcasted, but he knew that as soon as they got back, all belongs were going to be thoroughly searched for his bugs. He also knew that there wasn't a chance they would be discovered. He did momentarily regret his decision not to actually read his co-workers' email since he was sure there would be many things said he really didn't want said, but he held to his decision to only protect and screen the mail, ensuring that viruses didn't come through nor spies. He was glad to be getting back to work. It had been a long week, though satisfying. With a deep sigh, he tuned out the voices of those around him and dropped off to sleep.


	2. Ian Nelson

Thanks for the reviews, guys. And no, there is no relation at all to Macgyver. I like reading those crossovers but I don't know enough about him to try. I just like having a smart Jack. Now on to the chapter!

General Hammond looked up at the knock on his door. Despite his new commission in Washington, he had chosen not to sell his house, so it came in handy both for his temporary return to the SGC and for visiting his daughters and grandchildren. Now he saw Lt. Colonel Sam Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson standing outside. "I was just packing up for my return trip. How was the reunion?" Both wore bemused looks on their faces.

Sam responded obliquely. "Do you know who Ian Nelson is?"

Hammond raised his eyebrows. "A famous astronomer…I've read much of his work, especially since it has so much relevance to what we do. Why?"

Sam continued. "Do you know anything at all personal about him? I mean, his background?" She blushed as she realized the implied innuendo in her words.

"Actually, I tried to look him up one time to see if it would be possible to hire him but failed to find much of anything. Do you know anything?"

Daniel smirked and asked his own question. "Did you know that Ian is the Scottish form of John, and Nelson means 'son of Neill'?" He continued before an answer could be formed. "And did you know that Jack is a form of John and O'Neill means 'son of Neill'?"

Hammond caught on and his jaw dropped. "That…that…he's been working for us all this time…he's in charge…!"

"Yep!" came an unexpected voice, and they turned to see General O'Neill. "Hi, kids. Here to see General Hammond off?"

"Ah, hi, Jack. Um, yeah. You?" Daniel stammered out, caught off guard again.

"Really, Danny, you'd think after the past week, nothing would surprise you about me anymore." Jack drawled out, amused.

Daniel flushed. "Jaaack! You're the black ops trained to sneak up on people."

"Your point?" Jack retorted. "Expect the unexpected. Always be on guard. And always be ready to shoot or otherwise attack the guy trying to sneak up on you."

Daniel groaned. "Bah! So, _Ian_, come to see General Hammond off yourself?"

Jack chuckled. "Actually I was thinking of telling him where Ian Nelson was since I was the one he had looking for the guy to hire. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know I was so loved."

There came several snorts at that. "Are you sure it isn't just something you ate out of that refrigerator of yours that you never clean?"

Sam made a gagging noise. "I so did not need to hear that, Daniel!"

General Hammond chuckled at the byplay. Of all the things he had missed in his new job with Homeworld Security, this kind of communication in the company of SG-1 was his greatest loss. "Well, now that I've found Ian, might I have his full qualifications? After all, I wouldn't want to hire someone without knowing his résumé." Then he realized that he had in fact hired Jack without knowing this information and squirmed internally as he realized how easily the Stargate Command could be infiltrated.

With that uncanny people reading ability Jack liked to surprise people with, the Brigadier General commented, "As soon as I had my own office, I initiated protocol that should have helped prevent similar incursions. I did background checks on every critter and molecule that found its way down into the base. Then I rechecked a few times." He wore a grim smile now, and George recalled that some people who had been hired had never shown up. "In point of fact, I knew who Gilmor was before you called me to tell me I was getting a presidential spy."

General Hammond gave him a hard stare but finally decided that he was just glad Jack was on his side. He recalled the work the former colonel had done with Maybourne to restore his job at the SGC and protect his family and was even more grateful. To break the tension still remaining from that horrible period, he reiterated his question. "So Ian Nelson is a great physicist. What other hidden talents does he have?"

Jack opened his mouth to give a depreciating answer but was forestalled by his friends. "He's a hacker with two PhDs, widespread linguistic abilities and an electronic wizard, not to mention the fact that he is the descendant of an elf at some remove or another."

George refused to show anything but bemusement at this flow of information. He was actually in a mild state of shock, but eight years of dealing with SG-1 had taught him that they could always top their most outrageous situations. Heck, who else reliably returned from the dead? He chuckled again at the irony of it all. "Well, then, welcome to the SGC, Dr Nelson."

The four began to pick up the bags set around the living room for the flight back to Hammond's post.

SG1SG1SG1

Jack tossed and turned in his bed in the darkness. This was his first night back home and normally he had no trouble sleep anywhere. Something was niggling at his mind, though, and he realized he would never rest until he figured it out. He thought over the afternoon and saw again the look in George's eyes as he realized Jack had been screening entrants to the SGC. It was a look of fear and horror mixed with understanding. Then he remembered that that look had not been present on the faces of SG-1. He thought back over the years as he had admitted to them that he had done many regrettable things in his life. They hadn't given up on him then and continued to love him now. Finally accepting the fact that he was accepted by his friends, he drifted off to sleep.

_There was a council meeting going on, but though the people seemed strangely familiar, Jack knew he had never seen any of them in his life. They were arguing, and his eyes widened involuntarily as he grasped the purpose and identity of the people. They were Ancients!_

_'Let us leave this world to these Tauri. It would be wrong of us to interfere in their development. Besides, who is to say that the plague will not return?' Half the table nodded in agreement. Others weren't so much in accord._

_'We helped them get this far, they are still children. Let us guide them subtly, not abandon them.'_

_In the end, half of the population of Ancients departed in their city. The other half chose to stay and give up most of the technology in favor of blending in with the humans, as they came to be called. Years passed in a sequence of frames. Gradually the Ancients and their descendants chose to fade into the memories of the people and took to living in carefully disguised homes in the forests, hiding with the help of what technology they had kept or developed. They became known as the Sidhe, or elves, and were believed to be mythological beings with magical powers. However, in some lands, belief never completely faded, the main one of which was __Eire__. The races occasionally were known to intermarry, though they mostly hid their powers. In this way, the ancestors of Clan O'Neill received the blood of the Sidhe and so Jack O'Neill was born._

Jack woke with a start. "Sheesh!" He exclaimed out loud, shaking his head. "Where did that come from?"


	3. Email

Sam opened her email and started skimming through the subjects in search of any urgent or interesting ones. She was off work at the moment so actually had to leisure to do this rather than scrambling through while doing experiments and acting as the head of SG-1. Most of the messages she saw were relatively unimportant, insofar as that they did not require her immediate attention. There was one that did catch her eye, however, with the subject 'Hello from Chicago.' She clicked on the message and began to read.

_Hey Sam, it's Kathy. Did you have a good flight back? Things are beginning to calm down here, though the children all miss their relatives, of which I do include you and the others. Have you told anyone about Jack yet? Well, hopefully after this the whole family will be closer. I am looking forward to coming out there and seeing your work if that is still feasible. Keep in touch._

_Kathy_

Sam smiled and began composing her own letter. She had not gotten much private conversation with anyone there on subjects she wanted to discuss for fear of General O'Neill overhearing. Now, though, she had a feeling she could tell all and no one would know any better. After all, the general was unlikely to read her mail since that would be overwhelmingly rude of him.

_Hey Kathy, we had a great trip back! On the way there, Jack (as I'll call him here even though I can't to his face) was so nervous about seeing everyone again. He did manage to entertain some kids, though. Coming back he was telling tales on all of you. He still hasn't mentioned what abuse he suffered, but I have a feeling that if he opens up to anyone, it will be Daniel._

_We only told General Hammond about Jack. We fear for our lives! Hehe. I know he won't hurt us, seriously, but it would be rude of us to share the information. It was kind of sad seeing Hammond and Jack face each other afterwards, though. Jack admitted to having personally screened those who tried to join the base and we could all see the momentary fear in __Hammond__'s eyes and the sadness in Jack's. One thing I can say about myself and the rest of the team is that we have never feared Jack. Okay, so maybe that is not quite the case, but we learned very quickly that he would never hurt us or an innocent. _

_Do you know what the first thing Jack did as General is? He asked the president's permission for us, meaning myself, Daniel and Teal'c, to read his files from the Black Ops days. They were heavily blacked out, of course, in terms of places, dates and names, but he told us he wanted us to be able to see them anyway. His motives were to let us judge him and decide whether or not we felt he was worthy of commanding the base that protects the entire world. I think he believed we would be disgusted, but though I did feel sick, it was for him, for what he endured. I can't tell you anymore than that, but it was not pretty, even in the clinical and detached form in which he wrote his reports._

_You said he was protective you and your younger siblings growing up. Well, that seems to have carried over into protecting everyone from the horrors he has been witness to or done. One of the first things I noticed, and Daniel has told me the same, was that everything was toned down. We figure that this is so those people who haven't witnessed the horrors who end up having to read it will be protected from the whole truth. I can tell you that Jack has never been cruel to anyone. However, if someone else is threatened, and I've seen this myself, he goes so cold. Children trust him on sight and know that he would do most anything to protect him. Unfortunately, they are also his greatest weakness and have been used against him in efforts to get information that would threaten national security. He has never broken and given the information, of course, but if a child is threatened or killed, he goes ballistic and there is an awful look in his eyes. _

_But I'm babbling now. I wish I had the courage to tell Jack just how strongly everyone believes in him, especially me, but I know he would just shut down. Well, give everyone hugs for me._

_Sam_

She pushed the send button, feeling both relieved and embarrassed. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. When she opened her eyes again, she jumped as she saw that Jack—General O'Neill, she corrected herself—was standing in front of her. "Hey, Carter. Whatcha doin'?" he asked casually.

"Ah, writing an e-mail, sir." She looked at him suspiciously. "You don't snoop into our mail, do you sir?"

Jack looked hurt and she was sorry she had spoken. "Of course not, Carter. I do check to make sure no viruses or spies get through, but I would never read your personal mail."

"I know, sir. I'm sorry. So were there any disasters while we were gone?"

"Naw, they got along just fine without us. I feel unneeded!" His eyes twinkled as he said it, but she caught the edge of truth under his light words and winced.

"Never!" Sensing the need to change the subject, she said, "I already got a letter from Kathy. She has to settle back into sanity, such a tragedy! Have you cleared her visit here yet?"

"She pumping you for information on my secret life here already? Or are you pumping her?"

Sam laughed. "Both of course! Don't worry your little head about it." She said in a mock patronizing tone.

Growling at her, Jack smacked her lightly on the head. "I have spoken to the president already and though he didn't sound overjoyed, I think it's just the prospect of more O'Neill's. I'll have to clear with Mom and Kathy when they want to come but he left it an open invitation. I'd better get back to the paperwork but I just needed to tell you that. Have fun!"

Sam sighed as he left. He was sooo insecure! She went back to checking the rest of her mail, clearing out the crowded inbox. Just as she thought she had finished, a new message popped up. She paused mid-growl as she realized Kathy was responding already. Clicking hurriedly on the subject line, she hastily began to read.

_Hey Sam, yeah, I've noticed just how protective he is. I also saw how much the Air Force has changed him, not entirely in a bad way. His eyes have far more shadows now, which is understandable, but he also seems happier. I think that is mostly because of you and the rest of your team. Nothing makes Jack happier than having someone need him. I haven't quite figured that one out yet, but it's true. His greatest fear is being useless, mainly because that is what our father called him, repeatedly. I cannot curse that bd enough for what he did to my brother and tried to do to the rest of us, nor can I get Jack to accept my gratitude for all he did for us. As long as you don't shut him out, who are his closest friends, he should be stable and healthy. He seems to have had that shaken a few times by the way he kept watching all of you. Can you tell me why? Well, I have to go start supper. Write me!_

Sam hit the reply button again. She was unsure if it was her place to reveal what she was going to say, but if Kathy wanted to help her brother, she had to know this. With a deep breath, she began to type again.

_Kathy, Jack is likely to come hustle me off to eat pretty soon so I'll make this short. A lot of it is classified but it will help you understand. I'll start with Cassie. She seems like a well adjusted teenager but as you know, she's an alien. What you don't know is that she has nearly died several times. First, of course was when we rescued her. We believed a bomb which had been planted in her would go off. I refused to leave her, even then while Jack and the others waited upstairs for whatever would happen. In the end, it didn't go off but you have probably never seen such a terrible look in his eyes. Well, maybe if you saw him post-Charlie… Then the one who put the bomb in her came back later and Cassie almost died again. Jack was ready to put his job on the line if __Hammond__ hadn't agreed to the plan that saved her._

_Then there's Teal'c. Teal'c gave up his entire way of life on Jack's word, which meant leaving behind his wife and child. He didn't tell us this until later, but Jack was absolutely horrified. Another time, the big guy was brainwashed by his former employer and almost killed us. As I'm sure you can guess, Jack blamed himself. There are many more tales I could tell but I'll move on for now._

_I have been in my share of trouble many more times than I can count but I'll just tell you about one of the major ones. My mind was taken over by a computer virus, sort of, which completely screwed up the base computers. In order to protect the world, Jack was forced to fire fatal shots at me. I can't explain how I survived at the moment but you know Jack._

_Daniel is the worst. Jack took to him as a little brother, you noticed. Well, he gets into horrible trouble with great frequency. Once all of us were brainwashed into believing that he was dead so we would leave him behind. What was put into the programming was the Daniel called out for Jack, but he was unable to save him from the fire. It still gives me shudders every time I recall the false memory. The worst time was when Daniel did die of radiation poisoning and 'left' for a year. Yeah, that doesn't make sense but that's another thing I'll tell you more about later. Naturally Jack tried to take the blame for that too since the two of them had been having some major differences of opinion. _

_Well, I'd better send this because I think I hear him in the hall. Later!_

_Sam_

As she hit send, she hoped this computer and Kathy's were as secure as she thought.

Kathy, sitting at her computer in Chicago, shuddered as she thought about all that her beloved brother had suffered, physically, mentally, and emotionally. She heard a knock at the door and hurriedly shrunk the email she had just read. Fortunately it was just her mother, the only one there with whom she could speak of these emails. "Mom, hey! Miss me already? It's been a whole day!" She grinned as she said this and then beckoned the older woman over to computer. "I just got a couple of emails from Sam. You might want to read them." She brought up the first email and then went to the kitchen to make coffee.

Jennifer accepted the cup of coffee in silence and then put her thoughts into words. "It's hard to believe they are all so cheerful. I mean, Sam just gave a few bare facts, implied a great deal more, and yet…" She tried to articulate what she had come up with. She had gotten a Masters degree in psychology and worked as a school counselor while volunteering in her spare time to counsel victims of abuse at a local shelter. "I've seen many broken people, and none of them has ever truly broken from what I could see, or if they did, they fixed each other so well that they are the stronger for it. What did your Sight tell you?"

Kathy sighed. "I'd have to agree with that assessment. I could see shadowy parts here and there when they were apart, but when they were together, they were all much brighter for it, and I include Ally in that statement. I managed to talk with her a few times, and apparently, even though she has only seen Jack once in Colorado and Teal'c on a very rare and sporadic basis, she has gotten various checks and mysterious letters inviting her to a variety of activities, such as Taekwondo classes. She said that her teachers mentioned once or twice that her 'father' was a very generous man. She said she knew all along that Jack was her benefactor because she could smell him on the letters and that was why she opened them. So what are we going to do about Jack's low self esteem issues?"

Before her mother could answer, there was a chime from the computer indicating a new email. This one was from Jack.

_Hey Sis, Sam says the sanity is driving you nuts. How's that working out for you? _Kathy giggled at that and her mother smiled. _Let me know when you are free to come out here and I'll book you and Mom seats on a military plane. I'm settling easily back into work. Apparently, we are the reason why there are some many disasters around the SGC. I'll show you SG-1's backlog of reports when you get here and then you'll understand. You never did tell mom about that rock climbing trip did you? I could tell you were dying to but you had given your word. Well, I give you permission to tell all if you so desire, just as long as it is a subject that never comes back up. Anyway, I gotta go drag the kids off to supper. Write back soon._

_Love,_

_Jack_

Jennifer looked curiously at her daughter as she finished reading and Kathy met her gaze stoically. "Let me close out of this so we can sit somewhere comfortable. It's not the most pleasant of memories for me." She did so and they retreated to the back porch. Kathy was very glad that her three sons and daughter weren't home yet. She knew she should start dinner but doubted she would have much appetite after this. Hmm, maybe she could send everyone out to eat when they got home. Her mother cleared her throat and she stopped stalling.

"This was a few weeks after Dad died. Jack had promised to take me rock climbing before but hadn't gotten around to it before. At a guess, this would be right after he did what he did to ensure us money and he knew what he would be getting into so wanted to fulfill it before he was too busy. From what I've pieced together since then, the father of one of his friends owned a sporting goods store and sold Jack the climbing equipment at a discounted price. Anyway, this was in September I believe so it was just beginning to get chilly. It was a really beautiful day, though, after the sun came up. Jack started me out on a miniature cliff, maybe twenty feet high and taught me the basics of climbing and using the equipment. Then we went to a bigger one, that had ledges to stop at and all. We weren't the only ones climbing…you know, I never did figure out who taught Jack about climbing.

"So we were partway up when we heard a loud cracking noise. Jack yelled and shoved me onto the nearest ledge and tied me off on his rope. Then he took off climbing without a rope. I was pretty much in shock so I was watching rather than panicking at the point. There was a middle aged couple out climbing and I guess there was a fault in the rock that they were too heavy for. The man was holding on by his fingertips by the time Jack got to him. The woman was on her own ledge, by the way. So Jack was hanging on by his fingers and boot tips but I could tell that they were slipping so he somehow maneuvered to slip them off and toss them. He had better traction then. He climbed over to get behind the man and brace him with his own body. He was already pretty tall by then but I could see that he was straining. Jack helped the man climb over to another ledge and then took the guy's rope and climbed up to fix it to different stays at the top.

"The man was apparently something of an idiot because before Jack was up there, the guy tried to climb over to his wife and slipped. Jack jammed his knee into a crack to brace himself but the man fell anyway, at least for a few feet. Then he caught himself and stayed still, waiting for Jack to finish what he was doing. Jack was caught, though, with his knee stuck there. I had to climb up to the top myself, to find help. There was a spotter up there, who was on break and he climbed down to help the couple down. Then he spotted for me while I got down and called for help. A couple of others climbed up and finally got him down but his kneecap was damaged. He was young enough to cover for that on his physicals and basic training and all but with age it's gotten worse. He told me that he has been threatened with knee surgery several times but has refused it so far because it will lay him up for awhile, and as long as his friends are going into danger, he wants to be ready at all times in case he has to go rescue them. He also said that the only reason he has managed all those years when he was fully active as a colonel was alien technology that he would tell me more about when I came to visit. Anyway, Jack was commended for saving the guy's life but he just said that he had screwed up and asked me not to tell anyone."

"Screwed up? He saved a guy's life and thinks he's made some horrible mistake?"

"Uh, Mom, remember Dad? How many times did he tell Jack he was a screw up? I think he was afraid that his bum knee would keep him out of the air force which would null the promise he had made with them. But that's just my guess. Hey, I have an idea. What say we go to the recruiting office Jack used and see what they can tell us about Jack? You know the military and records. Everything has to be in triplicate and in hard copy. No matter how good he is at computers, Jack couldn't hide or destroy what isn't there."

Jennifer stared hard at her daughter. "How do you know so much about this?"

Kathy just grinned. "Who do you think taught me? I've written him many letters in the past nine years, both online and on paper. I rarely got a direct response, well, one that could be traced, but he left hints and bits and pieces for me to put together so I could develop my skills further. Occasionally Grandpa would give me advice too, which I assume he got from Jack as well to help complete the pieces Jack gave me. I've been getting informal word from Jack on a monthly basis, almost, though he has missed a couple of check-in's, here and there. I assume now that those times he was off world, but I'll have to ask when I see him. Come to think of it, he was missing for three months one time. I was really worried when he missed his monthly 'news' so to speak and I had dream about Jack. Nothing dramatic, just him digging a hole. It was sort of random so I didn't really pay attention except insofar as I got the feeling he was safe. The next month I had a dream of him on a boat with a woman. The third month had Jack speaking into a radio with a grin on his face. A week later I heard from him again as though nothing had happened. I'm going to ask about that when we get to Colorado, though. So when would be a good time for you?"

"I'm starting to think no one tells me anything around here. So what is your job, precisely? You work in a government building and you work with computers but you have never actually given me a description of what you do on said computers."

Kathy sighed and glanced around her house. She knew her brother had been over a few times over the last we and guessed that he had made her house safe from any surveillance but his own. Well, she trusted him, and besides, he was so secretive that she couldn't even hack into the base computers where he worked. "I am employed to, um, track down illegal websites wherever possible, and if I can find the owners, to turn them in to the police, or government. That includes a great deal of hacking, and I am fairly sure it was Jack who got me this job. Grandpa occasionally helps, but his leanings are more toward military traitors and such. And Jack has been known to send me cryptic hints suggesting people and sites I should be checking on, but that was pretty rare up until a few months ago. I guess now that he is general, he is sitting more at the desk so has time to do all these computer searches."

Jennifer stared at her daughter in a mixture of pride and incredulity. "Okay. So when did you say you wanted to head to Colorado?" She asked again.

Kathy smiled. "How does next weekend sound? I can do my job anywhere as long as I have my laptop. I don't think the family would mind too much since 'mom' tends to stifle their buoyancy, you know." Her mother nodded.

"You send a confirmation email and I'll help you put together supper. Tomorrow we can go see what we can find at the Air Force office."


	4. Reminiscences

Daniel knocked on Jack's office door on Friday afternoon, and entered at his call. "Hey Jack. Whatcha need?" He asked curiously. He had gotten a rather abrupt phone call, simply asking him to come to the General's office.

"Oh, hi Danny, I need you to do me a favor." He was bent diligently over his computer, typing furiously with a skill Daniel had known he had possessed yet never witnessed him use before. "Mom and Kathy are arriving in about an hour at Peterson's and I meant to pick them up but got kind of tied up doing this." He paused for a moment and glanced up. "I've been helping Kathy trace this guy but when she is on the plane she won't be able to access the internet so I've gotta keep at this or he might get away, I'll tell you more later."

Daniel took that as the dismissal that clearly was and headed out to his car with a sigh. He looked forward to seeing the two women again and showing them around but he knew he would have no privacy whatsoever, insofar as that Jack kept close tabs on all of his friends. He had good reason to worry, of course, given all the trouble they had been given, especially by the NID. He had admitted once they had gathered in his house following their return from his reunion that he hadn't had them bugged all along, but only gradually as he realized what danger they were in, and even so he hadn't been able to prevent all the problems. At any rate, he did feel safer than he had in awhile.

He pulled into the air force base and showed his ID, revealing his status as a civilian attached to the Air Force and given high security clearance. He was brought to the room where Jennifer and Kathy were waiting.

"Welcome to Colorado, ladies," he said brightly. "Nice flight?" He grinned at the expressions of dismay flitting across their faces. Stepping through the wormhole as many time as he had had mostly dispelled any twinge of the airsickness he would have once experienced during the kinds of flights military planes did. He grabbed the small overnight bags, ignoring their protests and leading them out to the car. At one point he was stopped by one overzealous young private.

"Excuse me, sir. What are three civilians doing in a high priority base?" This question was accompanied by a firm hand on his left shoulder, and he groaned inwardly at the man's stupidity.

"First of all, private, I have shown my proper ID at the gate, as these ladies did at the gate of the base where they boarded this plane as well as to the guards that escorted them around until I arrived to pick them up, second, these are relatives of General O'Neill, a person friend of the president, and third, if you want to prevent a person from moving, much less attacking you, you grab their dominant arm, here," he demonstrated with was straight face as he dropped one bag and disconnected the man from him, bringing him to the ground in a smooth movement Jack had grilled into him. He heard muffled laughter from behind him and then applause from an assortment of airmen who had been watching the show. He also saw money exchange hands and groaned as he let the man up and picked the bag back up. "So what was the bet?" He asked them, recognizing a few as guards on rotation at the outer gates of Cheyenne Mountain.

"Well, first there was the bet that he would try to stop you and then there was the bet that you would bring him down, Dr. Jackson. Heck, we have no clue what goes on at that mountain of yours, but we have noticed that you spend a great deal of time with the colonel—I mean General. There is also the legend that has circulated for the past few years about a certain bar fight…"

Daniel scowled at the reminder. "They finally let up the ban on us last summer, change of ownership, I think. What about Jack, though?"

The woman who had answered him before said, "He has given one or two demonstrations at the academy. Everyone has long since figured out that if he considers a person a friend, he won't let them go unprotected, which means he'll teach them self-defense, if only so he won't feel quite so guilty when he has to leave them alone. How are you related to the General?" she asked the women directly.

Jennifer fielded the question with a relaxed smile, now that she saw the high regard everyone had for Jack. "He's my son, and she's his sister. Do you know Jack well?"

"2nd Lieutenant Karen Sanders, ma'am. I wouldn't say we are well acquainted, but he has come through a few times interviewing us for positions at the mountain." She turned back to Daniel. "Haley is a good friend of mine, and even though she couldn't tell me what is going on up there, she did tell me that General O'Neill is a good boss, and…" She broke off, remembering that Haley had a crush on Dr. Jackson.

Daniel smiled, guessing her thoughts. He had quickly picked up on the aforementioned woman's crush on him, though of course he was not interested. "Have you been interviewed?"

Karen blushed. "Yes, sir. I just got notice today that I am to go into special training starting next week. Do you have any advice?"

Thinking hard over all the missions he had been on, he said, "Work on running in your spare time. Other than that, pretend it is boot camp and be prepared for anything. Perhaps I shall see you then. I'd better get going before Jack sends out a search party." As he said this, his cell phone rang and he laughed, answering it without looking at the caller ID. "We're fine, Jack. No I am not psychic, you are just predictable. Are too…Are too…Are—never mind, we're scaring the people…What do you mean it's all me—no way! Here, tell your mom." And he tossed the phone her way without looking, blushing at the looks of amusement and awe—amusement from those who knew Jack personally, and awe from those who had only heard the rumors of his reputation that had spread. Daniel knew many of them, which got more detailed every year on supposed exploits.

Kathy caught his elbow as Daniel sped up too fast for her mother, who was distracted by Jack on the phone. "I'm glad he has a sense of humor," she murmured in his ear.

Daniel took a deep breath as he processed that statement and nodded. By now, the onlookers had mostly dispersed to their duties and the civilians were out the door. He waited until he got to his car and put the bags in before answering. He was sort of glad that Jack was keeping surveillance on his car since he wanted Jack to know this but would never dream of telling him to his face. "I know. When we first met, he didn't. When I saw him again a year later, you'll hear more about that later, by the way, he had changed. He still had that whole soldier aura about him if you know what I mean but he seemed lighter. As time went by, he started to be a lot more flippant, which annoyed General Hammond, I'm sure and did occasionally get on my nerves but I always knew that he would be there when I needed him. He was too. He did the best anyone could do, but he never seemed to see that. Sometimes he would joke about wanting fanfare for having done something, but when it came down to it and reporters came through wanting to do interviews, Jack brushed them off at every opportunity, other than taking one chance to tell off Senator Kinsey in front of the camera for having interfered on several occasions that almost got us killed." He fell silent for a moment, remembering that horrible day.

"Tell me," Kathy whispered. She had seen Daniel's aura darken in grief and knew he needed to talk about it.

"That was when Janet died. She was Cassie's mother and the base doctor," he added, unsure if that information had ever been shared with her. "Someone got hurt and Janet had to go to him. I was filming him so he could have last words with his wife just in case and then, then…" He couldn't finish and pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the road as his eyes clouded with tears.

"Have you ever spoken to Jack about this? I mean, if you were there, he probably was too, wasn't he and he obviously knew her since she was Cassie's mom and the doctor."

Daniel chuckled hoarsely at that. "You could say she knew us. She first met Jack, oh, a few weeks after he was called out of retirement the second time. There was a disease going around the base that everyone caught except Teal'c, Janet and me because, well because Teal'c is an alien and Janet and I were both taking antihistamines for our allergies. I did catch it later, actually, but anyway, since she was just guessing at the cure, Jack ordered her to experiment on him first. And Jack was there, sort of, on the day Janet died, but he was shot shortly before her and we didn't know if he was going to live at first. I think he feels guilty that he lived and she died. I know I do." He added the last in a low voice.

"Don't. She was military and a doctor so she knew the risks and had the drive to protect, since as military she is a protector of the country and as a doctor her rule is: first harm none. Right?"

Daniel nodded like a whipped puppy and sighed before pulling back on the road. With that to ponder, the drive to the SGC took no time at all. He flashed his ID at the guard and waited as the man looked over the visitor's list for the two other passengers. He was mildly amused to realize that they were O'Neill's and hoped that the base would survive having more than one around. He knew that the General was reputedly a major war hero, but on the grapevine he was also in the middle of any trouble that went on inside the sacred walls of the mountain and who was to know whether he had helped instigate any of it. He had served at the SGC long enough that he had seen the inner sanctum, as it was called by the SF guards and was very glad that he wasn't in charge of dealing with all that went on inside.

Jennifer and Kathy were amazed at the number of checkpoints they had to go through. Daniel remained silent now as he led them to the elevators and down deep into the mountain. Just after they got out, he heard the sound that always gave him a major adrenaline rush of mixed excitement and terror. "Unscheduled off world activation!" He pushed the women flat against the walls as SFs rushed down the hall. Sam burst out of the stairway in their midst and ran with them. Normally he would have joined in the traffic, but this time he had Jack's family under his protection so he did the second best thing and pulled out the zat he had stored in the back of his pants. Jack had authorized, and in fact ordered, him to carry it with him knowing the kind of trouble he was apt to run into. He then pulled them down to the nearest door, which entered one of the armories. This required him to enter an access code, which he did quickly and pushed them in, watching carefully to see that the blast doors were closed before entering himself.

"What's going on?" Kathy asked urgently. She had been rather shocked earlier when he had taken down the soldier, but seeing him in full soldier mode despite his claimed civilian status was rather shocking, and she guessed he had seen a great deal of combat.

"Um, this is usually known as trouble, though not quite every time." He sighed as her eyes demanded a much fuller explanation. "We told you that we deal with aliens. Well, there are a lot of bad guys out there. Some of them have our address and try to come through, which results in a great deal of violence and mess. Sometimes it's a team that has run into trouble and rushing in with the enemy on their six, which again results in a great deal of mess. See that announcement happens every time the gate opens from outside. If it's our people or allies, there is a signal sent through and we open up the shield, called an iris, that covers our stargate and guards gather around in the gate room to guard against any intruders that might follow."

Kathy nodded in acceptance then said, "So what's that?"

"It's called a zat'nic'a'tel, but Jack immediately christened it a Zat and the name stuck, first beam stuns, second kills, third disintegrates. I am qualified with ordinary firearms but I prefer this." He fell silent as the all clear was sounded and closed his zat with relief. "Let's go see what happened this time." He led the way to Jack's office and knocked perfunctorily before entering.

Jack looked up with tired eyes at his visitors. "I caught the creep." He said without preamble. "I alerted the FBI in that area and they are picking him up. Sorry for the unpleasant greeting, by the way. It was just SG-7. They are all present and accounted for, Daniel. There was just a small incident with a cliff resulting in a sprained ankle and concussion. All in all, it's been pretty quiet around here. How was the flight, Mom, Kathy?"

"A bit faster than I truly like." Jennifer admitted. "Otherwise, no problems. We kept occupied with so interesting reading materials we found. Did you know that they kept a transcript of your meetings with them at the Air Force office? We can talk about that later when we get to your house though. I'm fascinated with what little I've seen and heard."

Jack scrubbed at his face with his hands for a moment and then looked up apologetically. "Daniel, would you mind giving them a tour while I shower? I feel filthy just hacking through that guy's websites. He's almost worse than the Goa'uld. And he hasn't even been the soul sucking sarcophagus." He forced a quick grin at the alliteration and then dropped it. "Please?"

"Sure, Jack. No problem. But I think you should hug them first so they don't feel neglected."

The general got painfully to his feet and held out his arms to his mom and sister, who rushed into them.

"I'm sorry," Kathy whispered, regretting asking Jack to do her work for her.

"Don't be! Don't you dare feel guilty that you didn't wade through that muck. I would much rather have it on my shoulders than yours. I've been dealing with tragedies for years, remember?"

"That doesn't mean you should continue to, though. You aren't alone, remember, Jack?" Daniel said fiercely. "Maybe I haven't been in all the same situations as you have but I know enough to help you shoulder the burden." He stared Jack sternly in the eyes, willing him to accept his support. "After all these years do you doubt it?"

Jack's smile was sincere his time as he released the two women and grasped Daniel's hand tightly. "Thanks, Danny. Now get out of here so I can go shower. I'll meet you in the mess in twenty minutes."

Jennifer and Kathy watched in amusement as the two men made sure their watches were synchronized and then they were ushered out of the office. "Since we are already here, ladies, let's start with the briefing room." He explained that the room was the site of many meetings both of teams and with alien ambassadors, including various Goa'uld. Next he led them down to the control room, where Walter, better known as chevron guy, was bent over the computer. "Hey Walter, this is Mrs. Jennifer O'Neill, Jack's mom, and Kathy Larson, Jack's sister. Guys, this is the guy who dials the gate for us to go and then opens the iris when we return. We couldn't do without him. Uh, Jack had to do without him for a few weeks and was very unhappy about it." He blushed as he remembered the whole embarrassing episode with Vala. "And that is the stargate. The gate room has seen a great deal of action. I've fallen down that ramp more times than I care to recall. You can hear more about that later though since we only have fifteen minutes left. See ya later, Walter."

He led the way out and took them briefly by the infirmary to prove that the equipment was the highest quality was the care though he still missed Janet's presence and attitude. He then stopped off on the floor which held his office and let them glance in before leading them to Sam's lab. She wasn't present and he guessed Jack had sent her up to the cafeteria already. Just to confirm that, he stopped by the gym where Teal'c usually was and found that he was absent as well. He checked his watch then and headed for the mess. As he had expected, the rest of SG-1 was waiting for him, though the smirk on Jack's face told him he had just barely beat him.

"Slowing down in your old age?" Jack asked impudently.

Daniel just rolled his eyes. "So what's today's poison?" he teased. The food was actually pretty good here, considering what the meals had been like when he had first come to the SGC.

Jennifer was amused by the dynamics displayed here on their home ground by the Jack and his people. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, she could tell that everyone had a watchful air about them and a competence that spoke of too much experience with violence, in her opinion at least. However, she also felt relief that the fate of the world was in the hands of these people. She watched as Jack devoured a bowl of Jell-O and tried to snitch food from the plates of his friends. Daniel glared at him but accepted the theft. Sam smacked his hand, not showing quite as much equanimity with the situation but obviously accustomed to such behavior. Teal'c, however, leveled a glare at the man and said, "O'Neill, if you wish to eat ice cream, you must get your own."

Jack leaned toward his mother and sister and said conspiratorially, "He is very protective of his ice cream."

Teal'c's smirk told them that he had heard the remark clearly but he continued to protect his treat.

"So can you now tell us the full story of how all of you me and what goes on here now that I am in a place where there is no chance of the wrong person overhearing? Please?"

Jack smiled. "I suppose… Would you mind if we continued this conversation in Teal'c's room? It is more comfortable and there is always the chance I will have to rush back to the control room, especially since there are still two teams off world. You don't mind, do you, big guy?"

"I do not, O'Neill. You are always welcome there."

They took their dishes up to the counter and then headed out together. This time they were in march formation, with Teal'c on point followed by Jack, then Kathy, then Jennifer, then Daniel, with Sam on their six. They walked in single file, so as to keep the hallway mostly clear, though they had been known to walk two abreast when there were only the four of them.

Once there, they all settled on cushions on the floor as Teal'c lit some candles before turning off the light. The four friends looked at each other then, share a silent conversation before Daniel spoke up. "I guess I'll begin. A long time ago there were people we call the Ancients, and they are the ones who built the stargate system. They are also known as the Sidhe and are the people who lived in Atlantis. Then, for whatever reason, some of them discovered ascension, going to a higher level of existence not in any way connected to the biblical term. A bunch of them left earth, taking Atlantis with them. Then some time later the Goa'uld showed up. Jack tends to call them snakeheads because they look like snakes but are actually sentient parasites which enter a host at the back of the neck. Humans are their most common host now but they have also used various aliens in the past.

"The one that showed up was none other than Ra, whom I'm sure you've heard of. He enslaved humans, as did the others with him, and they all deported a bunch to various planets where they were made to be slaves. Some became Jaffa, who are warriors in whose stomachs larval goa'uld are implanted to take the place of an immune system. Eventually the people rose up against their 'gods' and drove them out and buried the stargate. Oh, and by the way, the pyramids were made to be landing ports for the alien spacecraft. Anyway, in the forties some archeologists found the stargate and dug it up. They spent years trying to figure it out but only got it to open once; the man they sent didn't return… When I was brought in years later to translate, I had just gotten laughed at because of my theory that the pyramids are older than they were dated at. I figured out in two weeks what they had been working on for two years, mostly because of my linguist abilities and luck. Then Jack was brought in.

Jack took up the tale. "I had just lost Charlie at that point and was definitely suicidal. I was told to take a team through the wormhole and find out what was at the other end and then blow it up if there was danger to earth. I was not a nice man at the time. We ended up on a planet called Abydos. Daniel admitted after we got there that he didn't know the address for earth so we were stuck until further notice. However, he did manage with a lot of charades to pick up the language of the natives. Yes, I am good at languages as you now know but at the time I truly didn't care so there was no point. I didn't even really listen to them speak at the time so it wasn't until I got back that I actually learned the language, sort of remembering what was said in my dreams and nightmares I suppose. So Danny got to know them and even inadvertently was married to a native girl, Shauri. I got to know her younger brother Skaara, mostly because he wouldn't leave me alone. Then Ra arrived and we ended up in trouble. Danny got himself killed stepping in the way of the shot that should have killed me. However, he had already fascinated Ra so I was knocked unconscious and thrown in a dungeon with a few others while he was revived by a sarcophagus. He then proceeded to free, Charlie, Lou and me with the help of the natives. Then, when I was getting the bomb ready to blow up the stargate, Daniel talked some since into me about living. Some of the details are cloudy now but Ra stole the bomb and tried to send it to earth and it was rigged so it couldn't be turned off. Then Shauri got killed by some of the Jaffa so Daniel took her up to the ship to revive her and when he returned, we together sent the bomb up to the ship, which was heading into orbit, and blew it to kingdom come. Daniel decided to stay with Shauri but he had figured out how to get the rest of us back to earth so we told the General that he died and the other gate was gone."

"I got the others to help me bury the gate and I had a great time living among the natives and learning to be one of them. Then a year later we unburied it. I had found a bunch of gate addresses, they are made up of constellation symbols, by the way, and was trying to open the gate but I couldn't. Then one day a Kleenex box came flying through the gate and I knew it was Jack's doing."

"Well you do have horrible allergies, Daniel."

"I can't help it. Besides, I adjusted quite well to the desert. Remember, I was born and raised in Egypt."

Kathy shook her head at the two of them and said to Sam, "Are they always like this?"

"Worse, usually. When we are on missions, Daniel starts lecturing on all the significance of the findings and Jack retorts by garbling the names of everyone we meet whom he takes a dislike to, which is almost everybody."

"Well, I'm usually right, aren't I? We meet people, I distrust them, they betray us, we blow them up. I've made some horrible judgments along the way, I know, but we have somehow survived and I don't know how, and I'm not talking about the Nox and sarcophagi either." His face held a guilty expression, only recognizable as such by those who knew him best.

"Jack, get off it. You are not responsible for all the ills of the universe. You've made mistakes, we've made mistakes. Moving on I thought we were planning on telling your family some of our adventures." Daniel stressed the last word and watched as Jack rearranged his facial expression to better hide the guilt.

"Okay, so I spent a year of peace after Abydos. I started getting interested in Astronomy again and got out my telescope, searching for Abydos. Then I got called in by the Air Force. They told me that the gate had reopened and someone had been kidnapped. General Hammond assumed, of course, that it was Ra and we had lied about everything. He was half right. It was a guy named Apophis. We didn't know that at the time of course so Hammond threatened to send a bomb to Abydos to eliminate the threat. Finally I gave in and told the real story. He wanted to send a MALP through but I told him I had a better idea and threw in the box of Kleenex, knowing Daniel would then know it was me. We went through after he returned the box but shortly afterward, Apophis came to Abydos and kidnapped Sha're and Skaara. Lou had seen the address he had used to leave and we went after them. We were too late, they were both made hosts. That means they had no control over their bodies, they were just observers to the evil the snakes perpetrated through their bodies. Teal'c was the leader of the Jaffa but he defected to our side and saved us so we brought him back with us."

Teal'c broke in to share his perspective. He knew better than the others the feeling of guilt Jack had. He had done a great deal of evil in his time in the name of Apophis. "I was first prime of the dead false god Apophis. My mentor had tried to convince me of the falsehood of my god yet I had no way or real plans for breaking my allegiance. O'Neill spoke to me when I was ordered to kill him and all the others that were prisoners. Together we defeated the other Jaffa and escaped. O'Neill brought me back here and trusted me, despite knowing what I was and what I had done."

Sam decided it was time for her to put in her own two cents worth. "I had been working on figuring out the stargate for quite awhile before Daniel was brought in. I wanted to go on that first expedition but wasn't permitted. When it reopened I expected General, then Colonel, O'Neill to be one of those male chauvinists and said as much to him. He eventually proved to me that it wasn't my sex that bothered him but the fact that he had never worked with me before so didn't know all my strengths and weaknesses. I guess that's because he had sisters. I just had a brother whom I didn't get along with. After the mission to bring Daniel back, I was chosen by the Colonel for his team along with Daniel and Teal'c. It's worked out amazingly well."

"Apart from all your technobabble, Carter." Jack wore a sly smile on his face and she gaped at him for a moment as she remembered that he was just as good with computers and scientific language as she was.

"You are sooo dead, sir!" She exclaimed. It had taken her years to get out of military deference mode with him, but she had come to realize that he would respect her more if she made her opinions clear.

"Yeah, yeah, all talk, no action. Let's see you take me down in the gym! Aht, but no attacking the knee. I know you are trained to take advantage of weaknesses but do you really want me out of operation because of a frigging operation for the next few months?"

Sam sighed in annoyance. It would be so nice to take the general down, but she doubted she could do it without causing far too much pain on both their parts. She had the advantage of youth and continued combat experience while he had the whole covert ops deal under his belt. "Some other time, perhaps. We don't want to scare the lovely people."

Jack snorted at that sally and said, "Just for that, how 'bout you tell them some tales from beyond the wormhole." Just then the alarms went off and Jack was paged. "Stay here and tell them about some of these alarms. I'll be back in a few, I hope." He got back to his feet with agility that belied his years.

When he got to the control room, SG-12 was coming in hot. He sent out a call for the medical team and once the iris was closed went down to check on his people. They had a variety of injuries but none seemed fatal, much to his relief. After setting up a time for the debriefing, he headed back to Teal'c's room but was intercepted by Siler, who informed him that there was something going on with the computers and he needed Colonel Carter. Jack sighed in annoyance and decided it was time for some things to change. "Let's go." He led the man, still protesting, to his office, which was connected to all the systems in the mountain, even NORAD. There he began typing and scanning the computer. The man he had caught had been better than most and had managed to insert a virus that would infect any computer that hacked into his. Well, the man might have been good, but he was better, and he quickly managed to harness it and fix the damage, thanks to the layers of backup files he had included when he had been programming the computers. There were so many levels that a virus could never reach them all.

By the time he turned around with a flourish, Siler's face had taken on an expression of speculation. However, the sergeant merely said, "Thank you, General. It won't get out from me."

Jack nodded and got up, heading back to his friends again. "Nothing major," he said casually. "No fatalities but a few staff burns. How far did you get?"

Kathy spoke up. "You came close to death way too many times, Jack. Why…?"

"Why didn't I just break down and contact you? Stupidity, I guess. I figured it hurt less if someone you didn't know well died."

"Jack! How can you say that? Maybe I don't know you quite as well as they do now, but I am still your sister and it will always hurt. It devastated me not to hear from you. I knew you were alive but that was all. It terrified me when you went missing for three months."

All four teammates gaped at her. That was one tale that they hadn't gotten around to telling her yet. "How did you…oh yeah. I'm surprised you didn't try storming the SGC or something. Heck, why didn't you? Getting mellow in your old age?"

Kathy rolled her eyes at her brother. She felt as though she were a teenager again, with Jack alternately annoying and protecting her. "I was on the verge of it but I had one of my dreams. I hadn't dreamt of you in years, not since before…but then when I was getting ready to panic because you hadn't done your monthly check in, I dreamed about you trying to dig a hole. You didn't seem to be hurt or a prisoner so I did my best to relax. I had another dream a month later and one more after that and then a few days later I got another one of your little teaching tidbits and decided it was not worth it to try interrogating you so I just wrote you a letter saying I hoped you were well and the kids were great, etcetera. So? Tell all!"

Jack sighed and told that tale, emphasizing the amount of work Sam and Daniel and put them selves through and the danger Teal'c had put himself into. He had read the reports and heard the news from everybody when he had returned. Then he began to tell them about his covert ops mission he had been forced into immediately on his return and how he had betrayed his friends' trust in order to catch the bad guys.

"Hammond gave me very little time after I returned from Edora. I just had time to shower before I ended up in his office with him informing me that I had to do this. Then Thor showed up and since I owed him for saving me from that download... Uh, I'll tell you about that after this. So the first thing I had to do was go home and make sure my house was proof against anyone snooping around to set bugs and all. Then I had to stretch my acting abilities so that everyone around me would be convinced that being stuck off world for three months had changed me irrevocably. It was hard, since I was so glad to be back among my friends, with ordinary conversation and beer.

"So we got our mission to go speak with the Tollan. They are real snobs with the whole 'we are so far superior to you that you should feel honored to speak to us and kiss our feet' attitude. That was really horrible because I knew Danny had just spent a great deal of time and energy writing a speech to convince the idiots that we were worthy of their attention and to be told how to make their technology. I acted like a first class jerk at the earliest possible moment and then paused on the way out to steal one of their devices. All part of the 'Master Plan' we had worked out, of course. Stage two was the opportunity to yell at Hammond, which I did appreciate since I needed some way to vent my frustration at being used like this. When you guys showed your loyalty to me, it made me feel even worse since the way I was acting I definitely didn't deserve it and I knew that I would have to be horrible to you to put you out of harm's way.

"And I did, Mom. I threatened Teal'c, insulted Sam, and basically told Daniel to get the heck out of my life because I had never liked him anyway. That last part was at my house when he came by to see how I was doing since I had been 'fired.' He took my crap and left and then Maybourne showed up. I knew my house was bugged, since his bugs were so amateur even an idiot could see them. He 'approved' of me and so I was recruited into their 'secret' organization and told that if I betrayed them, I would disappear. Of course I did betray them. After I saw that Makepeace was our mole, and that he had been given charge of SG-1, I left a calling card for Thor which had the address of the traitors' planet and went back, with the Asgard not far behind. Thor opened the iris for me since I didn't dare smuggle a GDO, that's a garage door opener, with me. Then I went to earth and held the gate open waiting for the agents to follow, since their only choices were to be beamed up or come through the gate to wherever I had opened it.

"The worst part was trying to get back into everyone's good graces. I guess I was kinda popular because a lot of people came up to me after everything had been explained to thank me for getting us back on good terms with our alien allies. They do have big guns after all, and even though they rarely helped us except on their own terms, if they thought we were a threat to them they could do us some major damage. It was awhile, though, before I could convince my team that I was not and never had actually been the bad guy. I still feel bad for the words I had to use to keep them from interfering…" He broke off with a sigh and looked down at his hands.

Jennifer and Kathy eyed the rest of the audience, who had apparently never heard Jack's side of the story before. Daniel and Sam looked devastated, and the exasperated women did the only thing they could think of. Rising as one, they grabbed the two friends and pushed them toward Jack. Proving they were as smart as they claimed, both reached out to hug him, which resulted in his falling backward beneath the onslaught. This served to stem any hint of tears as all in the room began to laugh.

"With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Jack gasped out between chuckles.

"You have more than enough enemies. Geez, is there any system lord you haven't ticked off?"

"Is there any we haven't met yet? Heck, I probably tick them off just by existing so I guess that's a no." He looked down at his watch, suddenly exhausted. "Huh, it's time to go home. Grab what you need and let's head to my house to finish this discussion. Um, that means you have to get off me. Argh!"

He was helped to his feet and they headed out, this time in a more disorderly fashion. The only team still out had gone to the Alpha site so he felt no remorse in leaving. They left in three vehicles: Jennifer with Jack, Kathy with Sam, and Teal'c with Daniel.

Teal'c reflected on the division of people and pointed it out to his younger friend. He was not normally given to idle conversation but this was a conversation way overdue so he began with an 'innocent' remark. "It is good to see JenniferO'Neill and KathyLarson again. O'Neill's mother will speak to him about this guilt."

Daniel thought about that. "You know, I'd forgotten that she was a psychiatrist. That's handy."

"Indeed. O'Neill carries much guilt," he hinted again, very broadly.

"Teal'c. You think we were harsh to Jack."

"I killed your wife. I have perpetrated many crimes in the name of my leader over the many years. Do you hate me for this?"

Daniel sighed and kept his eyes on the road, pondering Teal'c's words before he answered. "For a time in the beginning I resented you for choosing my wife, but in time I came to understand you and forgive you. Then there was the incident with Ammonet and Sha're's death. But she told me to forgive you, and since I knew of the agony of guilt that comes from watching your body do something disconnected from your mind I felt the relief from her that she was no longer an instrument of evil. I don't hate you. I can't explain my reactions about Jack. I wasn't rational and I'm not sure why. It might be because I had seen him as such a hero and then he suddenly showed that he might not be the person I believed him to be. I was devastated by that betrayal, because even right after Charlie's death, when he was such a hard man, he did try to protect me. He saved my life and the world countless times. I did forgive him after he explained, but part of me never understood how he could do what he did until he let us read his black ops mission reports. I knew the rumors but the reality was different than I expected. I was such a pacifist before, you remember, and the thought of assassins always filled me with horror. Then I saw with each report a description of the people he had helped bring down. I know that he will do anything that is necessary to protect us at the expense of his soul. But I wish he didn't have to."

"Indeed."

The two friends remain silent until they neared Jack's house. Then Daniel broke the silence. "Thanks. Thank you, Teal'c. And thank you, Jack, for protecting us."


End file.
